This is why allowing folks with CCW licenses and training to secretly carry guns in schools would be a great move. Even if a school had no one armed, just announcing the general policy would make perps think twice before breaking in. The shooter in Newtown KNEW no one in the school would be armed, and as soon as he heard the police sirens, he shot himself.

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Armed security guards at movie theaters are rare in low crime areas, such as Aurora, especially on less crowded weeknights. And, with an audience fleeing the theater, armed guards may have experienced difficulty getting quickly inside.

So why did the killer pick the Cinemark theater? You might think that it was the one closest to the killers apartment. Or, that it was the one with the largest audience.

Yet, neither explanation is right. Instead, out of all the movie theaters within 20 minutes of his apartment showing the new Batman movie that night, it was the only one where guns were banned. In Colorado, individuals with permits can carry concealed handgun in most malls, stores, movie theaters, and restaurants. But private businesses can determine whether permit holders can carry guns on their private property.

Most movie theaters allow permit holders carrying guns. But the Cinemark movie theater was the only one with a sign posted at the theaters entrance.

A simple web search and some telephone calls reveal how easily one can find out how Cinemark compared to other movie theaters. According to mapquest.com and movies.com, there were seven movie theaters showing "The Dark Knight Rises" on July 20th within 20 minutes of the killers apartment at 1690 Paris St, Aurora, Colorado. At 4 miles and an 8-minute car ride, the Cinemarks Century Theater wasn't the closest. Another theater was only 1.2 miles (3 minutes) away.

There was also a theater just slightly further away, 10 minutes. It is the "home of Colorado's largest auditorium," according to their movie hotline greeting message. The potentially huge audience ought to have been attractive to someone trying to kill as many people as possible. Four other theaters were 18 minutes, two at 19 minutes, and 20 minutes away. But all of those theaters allowed permitted concealed handguns.

So why would a mass shooter pick a place that bans guns? The answer should be obvious, though it apparently is not clear to the media  disarming law-abiding citizens leaves them as sitting ducks.

That hardly seems fair... Aurora Massacre Survivors Owe Theater $700KAugust 31, 2016 - Before the deadline, the settlement would collapse and four survivors of the massacre would be ordered to pay the theater chain more than $700,000.

They had survived brain damage, paralysis and the deaths of their children. For four years, they met in secret as a group. Now, they were finally prepared to settle with the Aurora movie theater that became the site of one of the deadliest massacres in U.S. history. Marcus Weaver kept a calm facade, but writhed with anxiety within. His dreams often return him to the theater, the sounds of gunshots and the feeling of his friend’s lifeless body slumped against him. After he escaped, he found a bullet hole in his shoulder. On a conference call, the federal judge overseeing the case told the plaintiffs’ attorneys that he was prepared to rule in the theater chain’s favor. He urged the plaintiffs to settle with Cinemark, owner of the Century Aurora 16 multiplex where the July 20, 2012, shooting occurred. They had 24 hours. But before that deadline, the settlement would collapse and four survivors of the massacre would be ordered to pay the theater chain more than $700,000.

The Los Angeles Times corroborated this account with four parties who were present at the settlement conference but declined to be identified because the negotiations were private. A separate set of survivors had just suffered a devastating defeat in state court, where a jury of six decided that Cinemark could not have foreseen the events of that night, when James Holmes killed 12 people and injured 70 others in a 10-minute rampage at a screening of “The Dark Knight Rises.” The survivors, some of whom had two or three attorneys with them, were told that the state case had decided the issue — Cinemark was not liable for the shooting, and U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson, who oversaw the federal case, was about to issue an order saying as much. The federal lawsuit was effectively over.

Lights of the Century 16 theater still burn in the background as dawn breaks with crosses, messages and flowers left at a roadside memorial in the foreground in Aurora, Colo., on July 26, 2012.​

But Jackson wanted the survivors and Cinemark to end the case with a settlement. It was 8 a.m. June 23. For the next eight hours, attorneys for both sides inched closer to a deal. At 4 p.m., Cinemark’s attorneys presented a settlement offer. Before it was read, a federal magistrate cornered Weaver to speak with him one-on-one. He asked Weaver to remember the slow pace of change in the civil rights movement, and told him that changing theater safety would also be slow. “It was the biggest smack in the face,” Weaver said. “He was basically telling us, you’re right, they’re basically at fault, but there’s justice and then there’s true justice.” It wasn’t a good deal, Weaver thought: $150,000 split among the 41 plaintiffs.

Weaver leaned in close to his attorney. “That’s it?” he asked. “That’s it,” Phil Hardman replied. But the settlement would achieve the one thing Weaver had been pushing for, an acknowledgment that the theater chain would take new measures to protect patrons. Still, something was worrying him. “It was the 12th hour, we were all feeling the same way. We all knew they were liable. We knew they were at fault,” Weaver said. “(The settlement) was a slap in the face. But I said, ‘Let’s go for it because it’s better than nothing.’” The deal came with an implied threat: If the survivors rejected the deal, moved forward with their case and lost, under Colorado law, they would be responsible for the astronomical court fees accumulated by Cinemark. The choice for the survivors was clear, Weaver said. “Either seek justice and go into debt, or take that pitiful offering of money and the improved public safety,” Weaver said.

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